Two new facilities, Sunlight House and Sunflower House, are opening their doors soon to homeless women, with or without children, in the Florida Keys. Florida Keys Outreach Coalition (FKOC) board president, Nancy Rossell, says the new "Sun" houses, located in the Poinciana Housing complex are a residential continuum of care for women referred from other shelters.
"This is the second phase of life skills programming that takes homeless women past the initial stabilization of emergency shelters like Samuel's House or the Domestic Abuse Shelter," said Rossell, an attorney who has been the chief assistant to Public Defender Rosemary Enright, for seven years. "Sunlight House and Sunflower House will become the conduits through which women get off the streets and into the work force."
Rossell says women and families need longer-term mechanisms for support than most single men do. "A single guy can jump on a bike and go to work, but single women, and especially women with kids, often need budgeting advice, day-care help, or help with federal and state aid like food stamps," said Rossell. "This is an opportunity women can take advantage of, if they want to."
According to Rossell, 80 to 90 percent of the people living on the street eventually get into a second phase of help through some type of residential programming, such as those being offered by FKOC, or through the help of family members.
"It's a matter of timing between those who want help now vs. those who haven't yet come to the realization that they need help," she said. "You don't see many 50 or 60 year olds living on the street. By the time they're 35 or 45, homeless people are tired. It's hard to live on the streets; hard to be in jail.
"In the past seven years, I've represented a couple thousand people, and no one wants to go to jail just to get a roof over his head," said Rossell.
We're not enabling street people, we're offering help to women who want it now."
Reverend Stephen Braddock is the new executive director of FKOC, and he says the Florida Coalition for the Homeless claim there are 52,000 homeless people in the state.
"We're trying to get a number on how many homeless people live in Key West, but we don't know for sure," said Dr. Braddock, a St. Camillian Catholic father who has visited the Keys for years, but only moved here last October. "Sunflower and Sunlight Houses will be able to house a mix of 18 adult single women and women with children."
He says these two new transitional housing facilities will provide a supportive, supervised, drug/alcohol free environment, including case management for a stay of up to two years.
Those wishing information about the "Sun" Houses may call Father Braddock at 293-0641.